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User blog:SquirrelTew/The Gutting of Americana
I was born in the late 1970’s. My first memories formed in the early 1980’s. Growing up during this period afforded me the luxury of witnessing the frontier of the cable explosion. As a child I recall how awesome it was to see the birth of new cable stations like WTBS, CNN, MTV, ESPN and Nickelodeon. Being raised in a family of diehard Andy Griffith Show fans, I remember recording the show on VHS from TV so we could watch the shows any time we wanted. We even went as far as to record the show from VHS on to audio cassette tapes so we could listen to the show on road trips to see family who lived hours away. It was a magical time. We didn’t know how well we had it. Watching The Andy Griffith Show today is still a somewhat relaxing and enjoyable experience but truthfully, watching the show on local programming or on stations like TV Land and the like these days makes me sad and somewhat disgusted. These stations have gutted the show to a point where it is unnoticeable and, at times, unwatchable to those of us who know what the original, uncut version looks like. Key pieces of the middle of the show have been removed. Ninety-nine percent of epilogues in these formats have been erased. Sadly, first time viewers of TAGS in 2017 who view the show in the aforementioned formats will never know or see these edited portions of the show that have been destroyed all for the sake of advertising. This is beside the point but I am a capitalist. I love money, I love making money and we all wish we had more money but there is a better way to make a buck and keep the show in its original form. Shows (like Friends) on TBS and Nick play opening and closing credits in a small “picture in picture” box in the lower right hand corner of the screen. If local stations, TV Land, etc followed suit with this format on TAGS episodes, the portions they edited could be salvaged. As much as I love the show in its entirety, the opening and closing credits are less important than the actual show and this would open an additional 1 minute and 20 seconds of edited show that’s been gutted that can be added back. I would even be opened to having a banner ad or box be added for 10-15 seconds while the show played to supplement ad revenue. Thankfully, until stations show episodes in their full, original, uncut form, we have avenues to watch uncut TAGS. Netflix and YouTube both provide unadvertised and uncut TAGS episodes for the truest of fans. I recently watched a TAGS Marathon on Robert Redford’s Sundance channel in which every TAGS episode was uncut and included every epilogue. This was a welcomed sight to say the least and I applaud Robert on respecting the show enough to provide this to its fans. Unfortunately, those seeing the episodes on almost all other stations will never know the full extent of TAGS, Mayberry and its everlasting impact on American television. Category:Blog posts